US marshals return escaped psychiatric patient to Hawaii

HONOLULU – U.S. marshals say they’ve brought a man who escaped from a Hawaii psychiatric hospital back to the islands from California.

Randall Saito faces escape charges stemming from his unauthorized departure from Hawaii State Hospital in November.

The agency said in a statement Wednesday that Saito returned to an undisclosed location on Oahu.

The state attorney general’s office says Saito is being held at Oahu Community Correctional Center unless he posts $500,000 bail. If he posts bail, he’ll be taken back to Hawaii State Hospital.

Saito walked out of the suburban Honolulu hospital and took a taxi to the airport. Police arrested him in Stockton, California, three days later.

Saito was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity in the 1979 killing of Sandra Yamashiro.